Vancouver woman Roshan Thomas killed in Kabul hotel attack

Two Canadians among nine dead in Serena Hotel attack

OTTAWA – One of two Canadians killed in a shooting rampage at an Afghanistan hotel was remembered as a selfless advocate for children in the war-torn region.

Roshan Thomas of metro-Vancouver was among the nine people killed at the Serena Hotel on Thursday, according to her long-time friend Sen. Mobina Jaffer. The name of the other Canadian victim has not yet been released.

Jaffer said Thomas and her family had dedicated years of their lives to offering aid to Afghan children.

Thomas and her husband had built a school in the country, Jaffer said, adding her friend also played frequent host to young girls in need of a helping hand.

“She was one of the most unselfish people I know,” Jaffer said in a telephone interview from Vancouver. “I had just seen her a few weeks ago, she was doing such good work.”

Thomas died months before welcoming her first grandchild to the world, Jaffer said. She is survived by her husband and three adult children.

The attack that killed Thomas comes as a shock to a country long accustomed to coping with militant violence.

Afghan policemen block a road as they stands guard near the security perimeter setup around the Serena hotel in Kabul late on March 21, 2014. (SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images)

The Serena Hotel in Kabul was long considered one of the safest accommodations in the country. Yet on Thursday night four teenage gunmen worked their way past security, entered the hotel restaurant and opened fire on the diners.

Other victims included an foreign journalist, his wife and their two children, as well as two other foreigners.

Police killed all four attackers after a three-hour standoff, with shooting resounding through the cordoned off streets outside.

At the time of the attack, the hotel restaurant was packed with Afghans celebrating the eve of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, as well as foreigners who frequent the hotel.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird condemned the brazen attack, but said it would not deter Canadians from fighting terrorism in the country.

He described the two Canadian victims as development workers who were not officially employed by the federal government.

“Many of these people dedicated their lives to helping everyday Afghans build a better country for themselves, including education, and enhancing the role of women and girls in Afghan society. For this selfless work to be met with violence, especially on the occasion of Nowruz, just further proves the depravity of the Taliban and those who support them.”

Jaffer agreed.

“For something like this to happen on what was supposed to be a day of celebration it’s just horrible,” she said.

Afghanistan’s intelligence service displays some of the weapons and belongings collected from the attackers on the Serena hotel on Thursday, during a press conference at the Interior ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

The shooting rampage was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks as the Taliban and allied militants step up a campaign of violence in the weeks leading to April 5 national elections.

It’s the second time this year that Canadians have died in Kabul.

In January two Canadian accountants died in a Taliban suicide attack in Afghanistan.

Martin Glazer, of Gatineau, Que., and Peter McSheffrey, of Ottawa were among 21 people killed when a suicide bomber and two gunmen attacked a popular restaurant in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The two were in Afghanistan doing an audit for the Canadian International Development Agency.

— With files from Terri Theodore in Vancouver and The Associated Press.